


Woodbine

by urami



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Bad Decisions, Friendship, Gen, Magic-Users, Odin's Parenting, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Teenage Drama
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-01
Updated: 2016-02-23
Packaged: 2018-05-17 13:57:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5873011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/urami/pseuds/urami
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Upon discovering Ben's alarming connection to the Dark Side, Leia and Han do not send him to his uncle's Jedi Academy. Instead, they decide the safest thing to do is send him to the home of an old political ally on the other side of the universe, in the hopes that he would be safer there. </p><p>Frigga and Odin had been growing concerned about Loki's behavior for some time when a request from an old friend came- perhaps some companionship from a boy his own age would be beneficial for their younger son. </p><p>Perhaps Loki and Ben would be able to prevent each other from going down a darker path. Perhaps not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Well, this is a bit less goofy than my other fics... 
> 
> Anyway, Ben and Loki are about 10 here, at least at the start. Thor and his friends are approximately 12, while Volstagg (who always seemed a little older to me) is around 14. I hope that's not too confusing. It's also been a while time since I was that age, so I hope they come off as age-appropriate.

If he’d known what opening his mouth would set in motion, he’d never have said anything. It just wasn’t fair, Ben Solo thought- he hadn’t done anything wrong! All he’d done was say that he’d wanted to try to push himself further with his studies, learn to control his powers even more, and try to live up to the legacy of his grandfather. He’d mentioned the voice he could hear sometimes that urged him on, telling him that when he grew up he would be greater than any Force user before him. Really, it was all Poe’s fault. The older boy had asked, and then when he didn’t like the answer he’d gone running to Ben’s parents. Why, Ben had no idea. It wasn’t like he said anything really bad!

But no, he’d watched as the blood drained from his mother’s face, and his father’s expression turned colder than an ice planet. They’d immediately started shouting at each other, his father blaming his mother for “passing on that freaky mind-magic” and his mother blaming his father for being so distant and letting him “be corrupted by outside influences.” Confused, Ben had tried to calm his parents down, but they’d both just snapped at him to stay out of it. Eventually the argument stopped, and his mother had said she was going to call in a favor from some old political allies.

And that was how, a week later, Ben Solo had found himself (and a bag of his clothes) unceremoniously stuffed onto a transporter headed for the Yggdrasil system with a written authorization to be transported even further via something called a Bifrost. He hadn’t even been allowed to say goodbye to any of his friends, or take any of his things with him other than his clothes.

“You’ll be safe in Asgard,” his mother had said, although she didn’t elaborate on what he would be safe _from,_ exactly. She looked at him, almost on the verge of tears. “It will be alright, Ben- everything is going to be alright.”

His father didn’t say anything. He just looked at him with an unreadable expression on his face, clapped him on the shoulder twice, and then turned away. “Leia, the shuttle’s leaving. We need to go.”

Hugging Ben one last time, his mother whispered, “Frigga will look after you. Everything is going to be alright.” Ben wasn’t sure if she was trying to reassure him, or herself, more.

He really didn’t understand it. What had he done wrong? He knew his father was uncomfortable with the idea of the Force and what it could do, and he knew his mother disliked talking about her own father, but neither of those things were a good reason to send him away. And if he had to be sent somewhere, why couldn’t he be sent to his uncle Luke, to learn how to be a Jedi? That was what people who could control the Force were _supposed_ to do! But no, he got shoved onto this transporter to be dropped off in a system he’d never even heard of before. When he’d tried to find out more about it, all he’d learned about was that the system largely kept to itself, and the planet he was headed to, Asgard, was the most secretive of all. There seemed to have been a very destructive war sometime in the past, but there wasn’t anything more specific than that.

Scowling, Ben kicked his feet out into the aisle of the transporter. He hoped someone would trip on them. At least it would give him something interesting to look at.

* * *

Frigga, Queen of Asgard, was at a loss. Why was her younger son so out of control? Maybe it was simply his Jotun nature beginning to manifest itself as he grew towards puberty, although something told her that probably wasn’t the cause of Loki’s inexplicably vicious behavior. For some reason, he’d developed a bizarre grudge against his older brother’s friends and was using his magic to play increasingly mean-spirited pranks on them.

She had been able to look the other way when it had been little things, like turning the chubby older boy’s hair purple, or levitating a frog onto the girl’s head. But just today, Frigga had caught Loki using his magic to move small obstacles- rocks, tree branches, that sort of thing- into the path of Thor’s friends during weapons training, hoping to trip them up. When the other children were handling dangerous objects like swords or maces, such behavior obviously became potentially more lethal. When she’d asked why in the Nine he would do such a thing, Loki had simply shrugged and evasively muttered something about “wanting to see what would happen.” The week before, one of the chambermaids had caught him setting some sort of spell around the young Lady Sif’s chambers. Not being magical, the girl had come to the Queen with concerns, and when Frigga had gone to see what the situation was, she’d realized with horror that it was an explosive trap. If Sif stepped on the invisible trigger-rune, the whole thing would detonate. While Loki wasn’t powerful enough to infuse a spell like that with lethal force, it would be very painful for whoever had the misfortune to step on it. And to make it even more disturbing, the spell wasn’t just proximity-triggered- it needed a specific target to step on it. In this case, the spell matrix wouldn’t detonate if a servant or Thor or she herself stepped on it- it was specifically singling out Thor’s friend. Frigga had no idea that Loki’s abilities had progressed so far- clearly he had talent, and it was just blind luck that he wasn’t powerful enough to make it more dangerous.

Loki’s response to why he’d done _that_ had been, “I was bored and wanted to see if I could.”

Several days before that incident, Thor had come to her claiming that someone had tried to poison his friend Hogun. At the time, Frigga had assured her older son that it was probably an accident, but now she wasn’t so sure. Loki’s actions seemed to be escalating, and while she’d like to believe that her son wouldn’t try to poison someone, she wasn’t at all confident that he _wouldn’t_

And then she’d gotten the message from an ally outside of the Nine Realms. Princess Leia Organa had a son close to Loki’s age, in their species’ equivalent, and the message, in fact, pertained to him.

While Frigga didn’t know all of the exact terminology Leia used, she understood all too well the underlying message. Leia was concerned about the well-being of her son, and needed to send him far from home for his safety. Apparently, it had something to do with the boy’s inherent abilities and fears that he would either lose control over them, or grow to control them too well and use them for destructive purposes. Frigga knew all too well what it was like to fear for her son because of his inborn powers and after a quick discussion with Odin, she sent a reply back.

Of course young Ben could come to Asgard. He could study alongside her own children, and there wasn’t anywhere in the universe safer than in Asgard, under Heimdall’s watchful eye. And if she had her own reasons for wanting another child close to Loki’s age at court, then there wasn’t anything nefarious about that, was there?

* * *

“Next stop Vanaheim! Next stop Vanaheim! End of the line, so everyone needs to get off at Vanaheim!” the transporter captain’s voice crackled over the loudspeaker, and Ben immediately sat up straighter. Vanaheim? Where was that? He was supposed to be going to Asgard! Did he miss his stop?

He flagged down a crewmember. “The next stop is Vaneheim?” he asked.

“That’s right,” the man replied.

“Did I miss the stop for Asgard?” Ben asked nervously. The crewman laughed.

“Kid, you can’t get to Asgard through transporter shuttle. There’s only one way in or out of Asgard, and you’ve gotta be on a planet in the Yggdrasil system to use it. If Asgard’s really expecting you, Vanaheim is where you want to be.”

“But how do I know if Asgard is expecting me?!” Ben was starting to panic. The man smirked.

“Trust me, you’ll know. It’s pretty hard to miss. If you haven’t ended up in Asgard by tomorrow, this transporter is heading back to the Hosnian system. You came from D’Qar right? You’d be able to get a ride home from there.”

“But-“

“Look, kid, we’re docking now. You’ll want to get off. The captain _really_ hates it there’s anyone on his ship when we get to the end of the line- he wants to be able to enjoy his break and he can’t do that if there’s little snots like you lurking around. This isn’t a babysitting service, so get your stuff and get a move on. If it’s true that you’re going to Asgard, you’ll be there soon enough. So come on.”

Scowling, Ben gathered up his bag of clothes and shuffled down the gangplank out into the Vanaheim starship docks. It was late in the evening, and for the most part, everyone had already gone home. Apart from an ethereally-beautiful female humanoid with long, flowing blonde hair, the crew member he’d just been talking to, and a grumpy-faced Quor’sav who Ben supposed was the captain, there was no one else around. Hesitantly, he stepped onto the dock and made it about six feet onto land before a loud, roaring wind rushed up and surrounded him with rainbow-colored light. Before he had a chance to scream, Ben was gone.

“Hmph,” the Quor’sav snorted. “Awfully reckless with where they activate that thing, aren’t they?”

“On the contrary, Heimdall always knows _exactly_ where to activate the Bifrost,” the Vanir woman said, schlepping her bag over her shoulder. “He’s had millennia of practice, after all.”

“Humanoids and your bizarre life-spans,” the Quor’sav rolled his eyes, clicking his beak. The crewman just laughed.

“I told that kid he’d know when he got to Asgard,” he said.


	2. Chapter 2

When Ben came back to his senses, he was overcome with two different sensations- first, the overwhelming urge to empty his stomach from the dizziness, and secondly, that wherever he was now was extremely bright and shiny. Everything seemed to be made of an unnaturally glittery gold- the effect was overwhelming, but impressive, he had to admit. He was so dazzled by the room itself that he almost didn’t notice the absolutely enormous man, wearing armor made from that same glittering material holding a sword. But once he did, Ben found he couldn’t focus on anything else.

Scrambling to his feet, Ben started to apologize for intruding. The man looked like he could snap him in half as easily as snapping a twig, and since Ben wasn’t entirely sure how he’d ended up here in the first place, he had a sneaking feeling that he’d stumbled into a place where he wasn’t supposed to be. But before he could get the words out, the man inclined his head and said, “Ben Solo. Welcome to Asgard.”

“Thank… you?” Ben replied hesistantly. The man chuckled.

“It is alright. I know that the Golden Realm can be overwhelming at first. But you will grow accustomed to it. And if I am not mistaken, Gunhilde will be here momentarily to take you to your quarters.” Just as he finished speaking, a short, squat middle-aged woman entered the room and bowed to the man.

“Has our guest arrived, Heimdall?” she asked. Heimdall gestured towards Ben, and the woman nodded. “Well, come on then, let’s get you settled.” Ben picked up his bag and followed her out.

If he had found the gold room impressive, that was nothing compared to the outside. Ben couldn’t help but gape at the shimmering rainbow-colored bridge that led to an entire city made of the glittery gold material. It was beautiful, as long as he didn’t look over the edge down into the endless void. Vaguely, Ben wondered what would happen if someone fell off. Would they just fall forever? Would they eventually land on a planet somewhere? Or would they die before they bottomed out?

Even with those rather morbid thoughts and the under-her-breath grumbling of the woman, Ben was fascinated. This place, Asgard, was so different from his homeworld. D’Qar was a nice enough planet, he supposed, certainly a lot nicer than Tatooine’s endless sand, or Hoth’s bitterly cold snowbanks. But Asgard was on a different level. Maybe if he got close up enough it would be different, or maybe after some time the shine would wear off. But until then, it was a feast for the eyes, and he tuned out the woman’s muttering about how hard it was going to be to get dinner finished in time, why was she being sent out like a messenger? It was annoying, and if he hadn’t been focused on everything else, Ben probably would have resented her. As it was, though, he really couldn’t find it in himself to care. All he really wanted to know was: what else would be in Asgard? Curiosity was one of his worst traits, his father always said so, that his curiosity would eventually lead him down a path he shouldn’t go down. But it was his father, and his mother, who sent him to this world in the first place. Surely they had at least known how fascinating he would find the place?

* * *

 

It just wasn’t fair, Loki thought to himself as he moved carefully, trying to avoid drawing attention. If anyone saw him, they’d ask questions about why he was covered in blood, and if they figured out that most of it wasn’t even his, then they’d blame him for the whole sorry affair. He was a prince! Why did those wretched friends of his brother get away with everything? Yes, Loki had used his magic to boil water vapor from the air and then fling the superheated fluid at Fandral, but Fandral had started it. It was self-defense. And there wasn’t even enough of the water to seriously hurt him, just cause an inconvenience. Loki wouldn’t have done it if Fandral hadn’t tripped him and stepped on his back in the first place.

Logically, he knew that the older boy only did it because he wanted to impress his friends. What was more impressive than defeating a prince in combat? And since he liked Thor, he couldn’t trip _him_.. Not to mention that Thor would beat him to an inch of his life if Fandral tried it on him. But no, Loki was smaller, and weaker, and couldn’t beat him with brute strength. That he had magic rather than pure muscle was just another point against him. Why did he have to be born with magic to this degree? All Aesir had some level of magic, but only _girls_ had the kind of power he had. Well, the Allfather did too, but he was the _Allfather_. He was supposed to excel at everything! In Asgard, men were supposed to be strong and brave, charge headfirst into battle screaming war cries. They weren’t supposed to lurk around in the shadows and fight with trickery. “Only cowards and girls fight with magic,” Fandral had sneered once he’d recovered from the water bomb Loki had thrown at him. “Which one are you, I wonder?”

That had angered Loki so much that he’d given up on trying to trick his way out of the situation and just flat-out punched Fandral in the face. And probably broken his nose, if the ensuing blood-shower was anything to go by. It had stunned the older boy so much that Loki had wiggled out of his grasp and booked it out of the training grounds. Now he was lurking around in the shadows, waiting for a good opportunity to sneak back into the palace and change his soiled clothes. But if the amount of servants, guards, random civilians, and minor nobles scurrying around was any indication, it might be quite some time before he got that chance.

He was just about to grit his teeth and dash out into the open space when Gunhilde, one of his mother’s maids, stumped heavily up the steps, a young boy around Loki’s own age trailing hesitantly behind her. Loki didn’t like Gunhilde much, she was one of the people who always blamed everything that went wrong on him, even if it wasn’t his fault, but the boy didn’t look like any servant, or noble, or really, _anyone_ that Loki had ever seen. The boy’s clothes were bizarre, a sort of leather-like fabric making up his trousers, and a loose shirt that looked more like something suitable for sleeping in than for daily wear. He didn’t seem to be wearing any of the armor an Aesir boy of his age would normally have, and his fluffy black hair was loose, rather than tied back or controlled with hairstyling products (like Loki’s own).

It was probably too much to hope for, but Loki couldn’t help but wonder if maybe now his luck was about to change. He often thought it would be nice if another boy arrived at court, maybe one around his age, who was interested in magic. Of course with the way things tended to work out for him, this guy would probably turn out to be a jerk just like Thor’s friends, or he’d prefer Thor over Loki the way everyone else did.

Sighing, Loki slunk back into the shadows and tried not to get his hopes up. He would just have to wait and see. In any case, he needed to change his clothes before he could worry about anything else. Fandral’s blood was starting to dry and it was making everything very uncomfortable.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this one's kind of short, but the next chapter is kind of a monster (it's already about half-written and it's already twice the length of this one), so I decided to cut it off here. :|


	3. Chapter 3

Heimdall was not a man given to mindless panic. While recklessness would not do for the Guardian of the Golden Realm, over-cautiousness could be just as damaging. For a being who had the ability to see into the past, present, and very near future, as well as discern the internal motives of others to some extent, reading into someone’s behavior something that wasn’t actually there was a real concern.

But something about the young boy, Ben Solo, troubled him. It wasn’t the child himself- no, for all intents and purposes he was exactly as a human child his age should be. No, it was what lurked on the outskirts of the boy’s mind, a foreign presence that had no right to be there, that was slowly working to undermine the child’s sanity. Heimdall wasn’t entirely sure what it was- but he knew it didn’t belong. He knew that Ben’s people believed in a powerful entity known as the Force, although he wouldn’t be able to explain it very well if someone asked him what it was- it wasn’t something that the Aesir troubled themselves with. But he knew that whatever this… thing… in Ben’s mind was, it was likely connected to Ben’s ability to channel this Force. And if the feeling it gave off- sticky and corrosive, like a slimy syrup- was any indication, it wasn’t good for the boy at all. Heimdall idly wondered if Ben’s mother had been able to sense it to some extent, and that was why she had sent her son to Asgard.

Gently, so as not to hurt Ben or alert him to the fact that someone was poking around his head, Heimdall sent a push towards that presence. It reacted violently, convulsing and writhing, trying to force itself deeper into Ben’s brain. Heimdall had expected this, and took advantage of the presence’s movement to grab it by its metaphorical tail and give a yank. The thing thrashed about even harder, and Heimdall was able to sense that it was connected, like a string that trailed across the galaxy and beyond. Whatever this was, it hadn’t physically manifested itself in Ben’s brain yet, but if things continued this way it would have burrowed itself deep enough to start pressing on things and manipulating the boy’s behavior. If Heimdall had to estimate, if things continued without interruption in a year or two, Ben would start to lose inhibitions, and his anger drive would be raised exponentially. In a young man, that sort of thing was potentially disastrous. A hair-trigger for anger, lowered inhibitions, magical powers, and access to weapons was never a good combination. He would need to inform the queen of this development, certainly- she would be better than he at rooting out the source of the problem and protecting Ben’s mind, but he could at least start the process.

Giving one more metaphorical pull, in order to stretch the thing tightly, Heimdall poured power into his sword and briefly, a shield invisible to all but a few flared orange around the entirety of Asgard, severing the string-like link to Ben’s mind. Somewhere far off, he heard the source of whatever the entity was let out an enraged shriek, the fury reverberating around the universe. Another quick blast of power made the remainder of the thing dissipate completely.

It wouldn’t hold forever, but it was enough. And now that Heimdall knew what the thing felt like, he would be able to stop it from getting into Asgard to infect Ben again. And with Frigga’s tuition, the boy would hopefully be able to recognize and fight it off if it managed to sneak past him.

* * *

Ben sucked in a sharp breath as pain flared suddenly behind his eyeballs, the stabbing feeling so intense he almost tripped over his own feet. The woman, Gunhilde, looked at him with thinly-veiled disdain- apparently she didn’t appreciate stumbling children interrupting her monologuing. She had been informing him of what every single room in this ridiculously large palace was used for, and seemed to think that it was vital information Ben needed to know. Sure, some of them were important to know about, like the toilet and the kitchen and the bathing room, but others just seemed… random. Who had a whole room for paintings and nothing else? Or a special room for only forks? Apparently the Aesir did.

It didn’t help that he had awareness of someone else lurking around, watching his every move, through the Force. Whoever it was didn’t seem hostile, but it was unnerving, and with the sudden headache, it got his back up somewhat.

“Here’s the room you’ll be staying in,” Gunhilde finally said, stopping in front of a heavy wooden door and pulling it open. “There’s everything you’ll need in here- bed, dresser, writing desk, chamber pot-“

“A what?”

Gunhilde ignored him. “Through that door over there is the shared bathing room for this wing of the palace. Nobody else is in residence so you’ll have it to yourself, at least for now. That may change in the future. Now unpack your things. A servant will come to fetch you in about two hours for dinner. I do hope you have some appropriate clothing in that… bag… of yours,” she sniffed. “You will be dining with the King and Queen and their two sons. Please try to behave appropriately.”

Privately Ben thought that he’d been behaving just fine. Gunhilde swept out of the room without another word, leaving him alone to get accustomed to his new quarters. They really were impressive, a lot more opulent than anything Ben had ever seen on D’Qar. The bed was absolutely huge, even larger than his parents’ bed back home, and it was covered with a spread made of the softest fabric he’d ever felt, in an attractive deep red color. The writing desk was made of a dark wood, and edged with gold, and the closet was about half the size of his parents’ old house.

He had been around royalty and other nobility before- his mother _was_ a princess, after all, and it had been necessary for her to engage in trade negotiations with other planets at times, but even when Ben had gone on those trips he’d usually been relegated to playing outside with the children of other dignitaries. The only time he’d been anywhere this fancy had been on one of Nylax’s moons, where the Crown Princess Reki had grabbed his hand, slipped past her minders, and dragged him on a tour of her family’s summer palace. According to Reki, at least, someday she was going to have total control of the galaxy and her future husband needed to know the layout of the palace so that he wouldn’t get lost. To this day Ben wasn’t entirely sure if that had been a marriage proposal or not. He’d never asked his parents. Although Princess Reki had given him a small rock that she said he needed to keep forever. It was actually tucked in his bag- Ben had brought it along just to have a reminder that at least _someone_ out there in the universe actually liked him.

The Nylaxian palace had been very different than the Asgardian palace. Nylaxians may have more or less looked like humans, only with gray skin and very sharp teeth, but they had a very different standard of what was “comfortable.” Plush carpets and soft bedclothes would have been as out of place in that palace as cold, bumpy metal platforms and modular chairs would have been in here.

Suddenly feeling another stabbing pain in his head, Ben sank down onto the bed, the soft mattress almost enveloping him. It was almost too soft, it felt like he was actually sinking! Flailing, Ben righted himself, feeling very glad that Gunhilde had not been there to see that. She seemed to think he was stupid already, what would she have thought if she’d seen that embarrassing display?

And then he heard it- slight laughter coming from a corner of the room.

* * *

Loki knew he shouldn’t, but he was just too curious about the new boy. He hurried to his rooms, changed out of his bloody clothes, and sneaked back to the entrance in order to hopefully retrace Gunhilde and the boy’s steps. If he was going to be staying where visitors to Asgard usually stayed, Gunhilde would take him by a fairly circuitous route, in order to better show off the palace. It really was obnoxious, Loki thought. It was just a bunch of stupid old rooms nobody cared about, but they sounded impressive, so she would show them off as though the things in them were hers.

Loki caught up with them around the Portrait Room, slipping into the shadows he’d become so good at blending in with. Gunhilde was blathering on about some random ancestor of the Allfather’s whose painting had been taken down for restoration. The boy had a rather glazed expression on his face, which Loki could absolutely relate to. Gunhilde’s ranting was enough to put anyone to sleep. Loki was related to all of the famous personages in the portrait hall and he still found the woman’s babbling incredibly annoying. Someone who had no reason to care one way or another about the collection of Asgardian leaders stored there would be especially likely to find the spiel especially boring.

Eventually Gunhilde finally dropped the boy off in the room he was going to be staying in, and before she shut the door behind her, Loki slipped in, hid behind a curtain, and just watched. The boy seemed slightly overwhelmed by everything- Loki had only rarely ever left the palace, but he did know that most people in Asgard didn’t have a room this size in their entire house, let alone many of them. The boy seemed especially in awe of the soft feather bed, only to flop down onto it and flap around like an overly large bird as he tried to right himself. Loki couldn’t help himself, he giggled. It was probably kind of mean, but it was really funny! Who didn’t know how to lie on a bed?

Unfortunately his laughter was loud enough that the boy heard it. He froze, dark eyes scanning the room as though looking for a threat. He grabbed his bag and brandished it in front of himself, as though he hoped to use it as a potential weapon against anyone who might try to attack him. “Who’s there?!” the boy demanded to know. “Show yourself!”

Loki debated with himself- he hadn’t planned to meet with the boy before dinner, but the boy’s obvious paranoia was disquieting to watch. The boy held himself like he was expecting an assassin’s blade, or a bilgesnipe to pop out from behind the door and devour him. And the way he kept looking down at his own hands, as though he expected that he might lose control and try to strangle himself disturbed Loki like nothing had ever disturbed him before. Vaguely he wondered if the boy had magic that had just recently manifested. Loki didn’t remember when he’d come into his powers- apparently he’d been a baby, but he’d been around when a teenaged servant girl’s powers manifested. The terrified girl had lost control and nearly killed the entire kitchen staff with an explosive blast of power that flung knives, hot coals, boiling oil, and heavy crockery everywhere. It had taken an intervention from his own mother to calm her down enough to be subdued. If the boy had done something like that, there wasn’t anywhere better for him to be than on Asgard. Despite himself, Loki felt somewhat reassured. If he had magic, then maybe he would want to be Loki’s friend. Making his final decision, Loki stepped out from behind the curtain.

* * *

It didn’t sound like the voice in his head.

Somehow Ben didn’t find that a comforting fact. It was bad enough having one terrifying secondary personality telling him to go and do things that he’d usually never contemplate otherwise, but more than one? He wasn’t part of a species that was connected to a hivemind, he shouldn’t be hearing voices at all. And it didn’t matter what some of his alien friends said, Ben was pretty sure he wasn’t supposed to be connected up to anyone _else’s_ hivemind either.

With a voice that sounded more confident than he felt, he demanded that whoever laughed show themselves. Ben clutched his bag, knowing that if there was really someone there, it wouldn’t offer him much protection. He almost hoped that there really _was_ someone else there. While he didn’t want to die, assassination for his connection to General Organa was a better outcome than losing control and murdering everyone on this planet. Wasn’t that what happened to people who lost control of the Force? Maybe that’s why his parents had sent him away- they knew he was a time bomb waiting to go off and didn’t want to be caught in the crossfire. Dubiously, he looked down at his own hands. That’s where it came from, right? Maybe he’d be able to use the Force to implode his own head before he was too far gone.

But that was when the long, luxurious curtains near the windows shifted, and a slender, dark-haired boy around his own age popped out. Ben blinked. When he’d considered all the possibilities of where that voice could have possibly come from, he hadn’t expected it to be a skinny kid around his own age.

He wasn’t sure if that made it any better… he knew the remnants of the Empire conscripted people as small children and sent them out on missions as soon as they were old enough that they had a chance of survival. Was this other boy a small Stormtrooper out of armor, planning to kill him?

“I’m sorry,” the other boy spoke first, before Ben had a chance to say anything. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to laugh. It was just funny. Do you not have a bed at home?”

Ben stared at him, saying nothing. What kind of question was that?

“Do you not speak Basic? No wonder you looked so confused when Gunhilde was talking!” the boy continued. “Sorry. Uh… Loki,” he said, pointing to himself, as though he was trying to communicate with a lesser creature. “Loki,” he reiterated, pointing at himself. Then, he pointed at Ben. “You?”

“Uh, I speak Basic just fine,” Ben replied. “What are you doing in my room?” The other boy grinned widely.

“Oh good, you can understand me!” he exclaimed happily. “And what do you mean, your room? This is _my_ home!”

“Your home?” Ben repeated, slightly confused. The other boy rolled his eyes.

“Even if you speak Basic, you’re not that bright, are you? Yes, this is my home. I’m Loki.”

“Yes, you mentioned that,” Ben replied, starting to get irritated.

“Loki Odinson?” the boy questioned. Ben still looked at him, uncomprehending.

“Loki Odinson, the second Prince of Asgard?”

“Oh!” Ben exclaimed. “I’m sorry, Your Highness.” It slipped out automatically- years of being trained for how to behave in front of royalty from other planets made it a habit. “Please excuse me, Your Highness. I was not aware of the existence of your system until recently, and I did not have the opportunity to memorize the royalty of your planet. It was an unforgivable oversight on my part and it will not happen again.” Automatically, he seemed to take on the persona of a creeping courtier. He knew from his experiences with Princess Reki of Nylax that royalty could occasionally be volatile. Although in Reki’s case, her volatility usually manifested with her trying to drag him off somewhere if _anyone_ annoyed her- something about her species needing to be in the presence of their favorite person in order to calm themselves down.

Loki watched as the other boy suddenly babbled some random obsequious drivel. Once, he might have been flattered that someone finally deigned to treat him like the royalty he was, but now that it was actually happening, he found it rather uncomfortable. “Um, no, that’s okay, it’s really not a problem,” he said. “I just wanted to know what your name was.”

“Um, I’m Ben. Ben Solo,” Ben replied. Loki smiled.

“Was that so hard?” he asked.

“I guess not…”

“So, Ben,” Loki began. “Once you tell me all about where you’re from, how would you like to _really_ see what Asgard is like? Without the stupid portrait lectures this time?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Princess Reki of Nylax is an original character from another story of mine- she was originally intended as a one-off joke character (as an adult), but I became rather fond of her, so she's here too. She may make another minor appearance later, or maybe not, I haven't entirely decided if I'm going to use that plot thread. 
> 
> Also, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I finally got a job, I'm not unemployed anymore! The bad news is that now that I don't have literally 24 hours a day to lie around my house, updates probably won't be every few days like they have been. I'll still try to update a few times a month, but I'm usually kind of crap at sticking to any kind of schedule. But even if it's taking a while, I won't abandon the story, I'm having way too much fun for that. Little Loki and Ben are going to have some epic adventures. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	4. Chapter 4

At first, Ben was hesitant to follow Loki out of the room on what the other boy termed as “a grand tour of the palace of Asgard without all of the boring bits.” Gunhilde had been very clear to him that he was to stay in the room and get ready to go to dinner with the royal family, but Loki just brushed off his concerns.

“I’m a prince of Asgard! Even if anyone was going to question you, which they wouldn’t, they wouldn’t be able to say anything anyway since you’re with me! I’m a prince, I can go wherever I want, and I can bring anyone I want with me. And besides, if you’re going to be living here from now on, you’ll need to know where all the useful things are, not just whatever Gunhilde thought you should know. She wouldn’t have shown you anything cool. Now come on!”

Ben had to admit that what Loki was saying made sense- would anyone bother to stop a prince and his companion from wandering around? But part of him still balked, remembering previous times he’d wandered off from where he was supposed to be only to be scolded by his father or to see his mother’s worried look of disappointment. And in the most extreme cases, his natural curiosity had led to harsher punishments. His parents seemed to live in mortal terror that he would either lose control over the Force, or gain too much control over it. They had always preferred that his friends and companions not be Force-sensitive- that was probably the reason they didn’t get especially upset when he and Princess Reki would wander off and get into mischief together. Reki might have been a somewhat destructive force of nature in her own right, but she had no control over the Force itself- very few Nylaxians did. When it came to other younglings that were Force-sensitive, however, that same tolerance did not hold. Ben still occasionally had nightmares about the reaction his father had on Nal Hutta, when Han had found a Huttlet teaching a six-year-old Ben how to use the Force to punch people. Once he’d gotten over his alarm and shock at a Force-sensitive Hutt existing, he had then become furious with Ben and dragged him back to the ship harshly, ignoring Ben’s cries of pain and screaming that he was never to do anything like that again or he’d regret it.

Later on, Han had apologized to him for the overreaction, but the damage had been done. Ben had never again been able to look at his father without remembering the absolute fury and something akin to disgust he’d seen in the man’s face that day. And even now he wasn’t exactly sure what he had done wrong. Yes, his parents had told him to stay near the palace they had been visiting, but the Huttlet had been the one who came up to him. Nobody had ever told him not to talk to anyone! And the Huttlet had been bored, just like Ben- it was just a stupid game they’d started while waiting for their parents to finish up whatever they were doing.

But that was some time ago- Ben was ten now. He wasn’t on Nal Hutta, and Loki wasn’t a Huttlet. Han Solo wasn’t here, and even if he had been, they’d sent him here to be around Aesir. Ben decided it didn’t really matter what his father would think. If he wanted to explore the Asgardian palace, he was going to do just that.

“Alright, let’s go,” Ben finally agreed.

* * *

At first, Loki had worried he had misjudged Ben- what if the other boy didn’t want to be around him after all? But then he realized that the conflict that broadcasted itself across Ben’s face had nothing to do with him at all- it was all directed inwards. Loki wasn’t sure what it was, but there was something about Ben that worried him. He had no idea really where the other boy had come from, but the way he reacted to things made Loki extremely uncomfortable. First there had been the way that when Loki had laughed and revealed himself, that Ben looked as though he was expecting to be murdered. Then, there was the hesitancy at Loki’s suggestion of exploring that seemed more like a mortal terror of getting into trouble than anything else.

But then Ben had agreed, and it left Loki wondering- was he seeing things that weren’t there after all?

The first place he’d decided to show Ben was the best way to sneak into the kitchens. All you had to do to get there was slip behind a tapestry displaying a rather gory battle from the last war with Jotunheim, showing Odin slicing and stabbing his way through a battalion of Frost Giant warriors, follow the little hallway to the end, and then push the door open. “Edda is the head cook, and as long as you don’t get in her way she won’t care if you take some sweets,” Loki explained, then demonstrated just that. Both boys slipped into the kitchen, ducked past a rather large woman hauling a boar’s carcass to the counter, and each grabbed a sweet bun from a basket on a different counter. The huge woman eyeballed them, saw who it was, then rolled her eyes.

“You’re going to spoil your dinner, my prince,” she said, not especially disapproving. Loki pouted.

“Aww… but they’re so good!”

“Why can’t I ever say no to you, kid?” the woman chuckled. “Alright, just don’t eat them all or your mother will have my head.” Then, she turned her attention to Ben. “And don’t you spoil your dinner either! The Queen told me to make an extra-special meal since it’s your first night in Asgard!”

“Um, no ma’am,” Ben replied, surprised at being addressed directly. “I will eat everything on my plate.” The woman looked a bit alarmed at that.

“Well, no, don’t do that, you’d explode!”

“We don’t really do plates,” Loki explained. “Everything is on a board, and you take what you want and then just eat it. And if you want a refill on your drink you just smash the cup.”

Ben blinked- nobody had thought to instruct him on Asgardian table manners. But then again, nobody had thought to really tell him much of anything. Resolutely, he nodded. “Thank you,” he told the cook politely. “I will keep that in mind.”

After sneaking another sweet roll each, Loki and Ben left the kitchen, leaving the cook to her thoughts as she started chopping up the boar in order to cook it better. Loki had always concerned her a bit- the boy was too smart (and smart-mouthed) for his own good and was going to get into trouble sooner or later. Maybe this polite new child at court would be a good influence on him. Even if the kid _did_ think he was supposed to eat an entire boar, sixteen chickens, three cows, and a vat of mead all on his own. Really, it was a good thing Loki had brought him by the kitchens- the poor boy would have given himself a truly horrendous case of indigestion if he’d tried to eat all that!

* * *

The next place Loki decided to show Ben was the armory. “You’ll need to know where this is,” he said, nose wrinkling with some distaste. “It’s where you’ll get your weapons for training. Which will probably start soon, now that you’re here.” Ben looked surprised.

“I’m going to train with weapons? Really?”

“Yeah. It’s not that great,” Loki replied, somewhat put out at seeing the excitement on his new friend’s face. What if he turned out like Thor’s friends and just wanted an excuse to beat up on someone (most probably Loki)? Ben didn’t notice Loki’s discomfort.

“I’ve never been allowed to actually train with a real weapon before!” he exclaimed. “Finally!”

“You’ve never actually trained?” Loki asked, surprised. Ben shook his head, suddenly looking bitter.

“My father never allowed me to. I was only allowed to shoot targets with a blaster, and only then under really close supervision from one of my uncles or him. He said it would be too dangerous for everyone.”

Loki stayed quiet- he was certainly no stranger to being disappointed by his father’s decisions (and having his father be disappointed in him), but he hadn’t been able to get over his own hang-ups in that regards, so he didn’t think he would have anything particularly insightful to say. But he definitely knew how the other boy felt, and now his excitement about the armory started to make more sense. _Everyone_ got excited about training with real weapons once they were old enough to actually begin training in earnest.

“It’s not like I even did anything that would make him think that,” Ben continued, as though he’d completely forgotten Loki was there. “But no, ‘it’s too dangerous, Ben! Wait until you’re old enough to train with your uncle, then you’ll be able to learn. You’ll need to control yourself first- what if you lose control of the Force?’” The human boy rolled his eyes. “You can’t lose control of the Force that way! That’s not how the Force works! Everyone knows that!”

Loki let Ben rant to himself for a bit- he knew from experience that sometimes it was just best to let it all out. And maybe once they actually started training he’d be able to learn more about what this Force Ben was mentioning was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this wasn't supposed to be up today, I was supposed to go to work, but a coworker asked me to switch shifts with them and I'm feeling much better (had a nasty norovirus over the weekend), so it's up earlier than expected! 
> 
> Also, if you want to read me complaining about things, I now have a DW account- urami.dreamwidth.org. I know, it's kind of old-school. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
